Contested Migration by Camilla May Cockerton

Author:Camilla May Cockerton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811325892
Publisher: Springer Singapore

Individual migrant histories also seem to have varied quite considerably from woman to woman, although it seems likely that as time passed women tended to go to South Africa more often and for longer periods. Schapera thought that women generally remained away much longer than men. In fact, the pattern was highly variable. Some women away in South Africa returned to Bechuanaland every weekend or every month; others, like the men, only once or twice a year.41 At the other extreme was one woman who returned to Bechuanaland in 1927 having been away for 30 years, though this was clearly the exception.42 In sum, most women engaged in an irregular and extended form of circular migration between their rural Bechuanaland village and their final destination point.

The 1946 census estimated that over two-thirds of women (70 per cent) had been absent from Bechuanaland for less than four years.43 Almost certainly, this was not the first-time absence from Bechuanaland for many of these women. Rather what the figures seem to represent is the fact that when they did migrate, the vast majority of women did not stay away for more than four years. This conclusion would have to be tempered by the fact that the 70 per cent would also include young women who had migrated within the previous four years for the first time and who might well eventually have stayed away much longer.

Schapera suggested that the type of destination influenced the length of absence:The general impression I received from conversation with people both here and in other tribes is that women going to urban areas, and particularly the Rand, [to work as domestic servants] tend to stay away for several years consecutively, if they return at all. On the other hand, those seeking farms, etc., in the Western Transvaal, normally return after a few months, usually at the end of harvesting season.44

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